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BOOKER TALLIAFERRO WASHINGTON 



Born Near Hale's Ford, Virginia, April 5, 
1856. 

Graduated-frpr^ Hampton Islormal and Agri- 
,9JiHw lo AbBlo ismis .nem oVI ° 

cultural Institute-viSgs. jv ry 1 

Establisl^d/jTi^^k^^ l^Ofgn^nd W^trial 
Institute, 1881. ".miA 

Died at Tuskegee, Alabama, November 14, 
1915. 





"No man, ei4ier black or xCKite, 
from Mor^ or Sou4i, sKall drag ne 
clov?n 50 low as to thake me I e 
Kim." 





i6-e — 



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BOOKER TALLIAFERRO WASHINGTON 



Born Near Hale*s Ford, Virginia, April 5, 
1856. 

Graduated frora Hampton Normal and Agri- 
cultural Institute, 1875. 

EstablisKed Tuskegee Normal and Industrial 
Institute, 1881. 

Died at Tuskegee, Alabama, November 14, 
1915. 



Because Ke loved his fellowmen 
supremely) this Memorial to 

Booker T. Washingtom 

is sent forfla to bear flae inspira- 
tion of his life to &ie 5^outh of 
his own people a d to all those 
^ho in love of their felloes 
make their way to God. 

G. L I. 



REMEMBER 




oofeer C l^agftini 




G. LAKE IMES 

Dean, Phelps Hall Bible Training School 
Tuskegee Institute, Ala. 






An address delivered before 4ie teacKers and students 
of 4ie Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute at ^e 
Memorial Exercises on tke First Anniversary of the 
death of Dr. Booker T. Washington, Founder and First 
Principal. 



APR 25 1917 



t, / b 

.97 



Cop^'right 1917. G. Lake Imes 



A. 



C1.A461474 




E are met tonight to pay an affec- 
tionate and grateful tribute to the 
memory of Booker T. Washing- 
ton. We are met because we loved 
him, because we still love him; because we 
love the memorj^ of his words and of his deeds ; 
because it gives us joy to recount among our- 
selves his kindnesses, his simple w^ays, and the 
goodly deeds which it was the delight of his 
heart to perform; because it is our joy to re- 
member that larger service which he rendered, 
not only to us, but to our nation and to the 
world. But great as is our love, deep as may 
be our gratitude, there is a stronger motive 
that brings us together; and that is, a solemn 
purpose in our hearts to perpetuate the mem- 
ory of Booker T. Washington as a service to 
the thousands of Negro boys and girls who 
follow him in the path that leads up from slav- 
ery. 



'/»1<I 



REMEMBER BOOKER T. WASHINGTON 



It is a thrilling thing to recount the achieve- 
ments of his remarkable career. It is an in- 
spiring thing to stand upon these grounds and 
view the monument which he himself erected 
as a perpetual service to his people. But it is 
more inspiring still for us to look upon his 
career and note the discouragements and handi- 
caps which he overcame as he won his way 
into the hearts of men and women the world 
over and wrought the achievements of which 
all of us are proud. It is with this in mind 
that I ask you to think with me for a moment 
just why it is valuable and why it is worth 
while for every Negro boy and girl to remem- 
ber Booker T. Washington. 

JTT It is still true that the majority of Negro 
^ boys and girls are born amid surroundings 
of poverty, obscurity and ignorance ; surround- 
ings which for most of them, if not all of them, 
constitute a tremendous handicap as they make 
their way upward. Their poverty prevents 
their laying hold upon those things that would 
make for their advancement; their obscurity 
buries their talents and keeps them beyond the 
reach of sympathetic aid; their ignorance de- 

[2] 



REMEMBER BOOKER T. WASHINGTON 

prives them of that most valuable of all oppor- 
tunities, the opportunity to help themselves. 
Such a combination of poverty, obscurity and 
ignorance may well daunt the stoutest heart 
within the breast of any Negro bo}^ or girl. 
But if there is any boy or girl among you who 
is tempted to think that the circumstances un- 
der which he was born were adverse, let him 
bear in mind the adversity of circumstance un- 
der which Booker T. Washington was born. 

Coming into the world a slave, not even 
the garment that covered his nakedness was 
his own. Born a slave, his mother a bond ser- 
vant, and a father who never once made him- 
self known to the world, Booker T. Washing- 
ton was as near in his birth to being nobody as 
anybody could well be born. Born a slave, 
the opportunity of education was alto- 
gether denied him, and to him who 
might have given it him, the gift was ascribed 
a crime. But from that very poverty Booker 
T. Washington rose to amass millions which 
he scattered upon these hills and scattered 
throughout the South for the blessing of black 
and white alike; rose from that obscurity, and 

[3] 



REMEMBER BOOKER T. WASHINGTON 



in spite of it, attained the place that wherever 
the printed page appears the name of Booker 
T. Washington is known and honored. In 
spite of his early ignorance, kings and princes 
and rulers of the earth sought counsel of the 
wisdom that fell from his lips. If ever any 
among you, by reason of the adversity of your 
circumstances, should be tempted to be dis- 
couraged or disheartened, remember Booker T. 
Washington. 



€ 



For a long time to come it will be true for 
Negro boys and girls that the badge of 
their color and of their race will be to them a 
handicap even when they have overcome the 
disadvantages of poverty, obscurity and ignor- 
ance. They will find that an unreasoning pre- 
judice will make it a barrier across all the 
avenues of life. They will find that these are 
used to hamper them amid all the activities 
and affairs of men. They will find them to be 
handicaps in nearly all the relationships of so- 
ciety. Because of this fact, many have been 
discouraged. Many have not counted the strug- 
gle as worth tlie while, and have given up in 
despair. But the career of Booker T. Wash- 

[4] 



REMEMBER BOOKER T. WASHINGTON 



ington is a career that was projected on the 
fact that he was a Negro. At the veiy outset 
he proudly and insistently identified himself 
with the Negro race. His course was to cham- 
pion the cause of the Negro; and whatever of 
unpopularity and discouragement this course 
could bring, was present at the very foundation 
of his career. But upon that foundation Book- 
er T. Washington overcame the very thing that 
might have discouraged him and built the 
achievements of his remarkable career, built it 
by taking advantage of his disadvantages. 
By his own worth, by his own character, by 
his own industry, Booker T. Washington has 
demonstrated to us once for all that there are 
no obstacles that mav come into the life of any 
Negro boy or girl that character and worth 
and service cannot finally overcome. 

Men have marked his achievements and have 
attributed them to some peculiar spark of 
o-enius, some favorable circumstance. But I 
w^ould have you understand that at the bottom 
of all these achievements lay these things: a 
patient humihty, a capacity for hard work, a 
steadfast persistence toward the goal of his en- 

[3] 



REMEMBER BOOKER T. WASHINGTON 

deavor, and an unselfishness that attained the 
magnitude of love. These are the common 
qualities which men the world over honor and 
love and bless him for. These are the common 
qualities that endear him to the hearts of the 
American people: upon these qualities he 
builded what he leaves with us as his monu- 
ment, and has demonstrated that with such an 
endowment — possible to any Negro boy or 
girl — there are no difficulties, there are no han- 
dicaps, there are no embarrassments that he 
cannot overcome as he makes his way upward. 

^ There is another thing that jNTegro boys and 
^ girls will face with more and more of inter- 
est as they advance. What of the attitude of the 
general American public toward the Negro? 
As they go out they will find in one section 
that it is indicated by a keen competition; in 
another section it may be a cold indifference; 
in still another region it may be a haughty su- 
periority; and in yet another place it may be 
a stubborn opposition. When brought face to 
face with these things, many of the stoutest 
hearts among us have quailed. So that there 
are wise men among us, thoughtful men, some 

[6] 



REMEMBER BOOKER T. WASHINGTON 



of whom have counselled the Negro to rebel. 
Others have told him that it is best for him 
to move out. Others have said that the only 
thing for him to do is to patiently submit to 
a permanent place of inferiority. 

My young friends, if ever you are tempted 
to believe that any one of these three courses is 
the only one that lies before you, I would have 
you recall this fact: that the very career itself 
of Booker T. Washington is nothing more 
than a record of the interest, the sympathy, 
the encouragement, the support and good will 
of every section of the American people. What 
else mean the letters which constantly come to 
us of appreciation and encouragement? What 
ehe mean the gifts that are pouring in upon 
us from North, East, South and West? What 
else mean the hundreds of visitors who come 
into our midst and attest by their presence their 
endorsement of the cause for which Tuskegee 
stands? From the first gift of two thousand 
dollars by the Alabama Legislature to the last 
gift of two hundred and fifty thousand dol- 
lars by George W. Eastman, everything that 
entered into the life and career of Booker T. 

[7] 



REMEMBER BOOKER T. WASHINGTON 



Washington is a testimonial of the interest, the 
sym]3athy and good will of the American peo- 
ple. If therefore the way before you seems 
dark; if you are tempted to doubt the atti- 
tude of the American people and the future 
that lies before you on these shores, I bid you 
again, remember Booker T. Washington. 




But there is one thing more in which the 
Negro boy and girl will need encourage- 
ment. The history of the Negro is a long, long 
record of adversity. The pathway over which 
he has travelled up to this time has been diffi- 
cult and hard. Because it has been so difficult, 
because it has been so hard, there are those who 
say that there is nothing of promise in his fu- 
ture, and that his backwardness and present 
inferiority are the limits of place and position 
permanently given him of God. Those w^ho 
have opposed him most have frequently assert- 
ed — as they believed — that the Negro was 
cursed from the beginning. But friends, I say 
to you, that if ever a people had the marks 
of the providence of God in their history, none 
have had it more plainly than the Negro. There 
are none now who doubt that the transporta- 

[8] 



REMEMBER BOOKER T. WASHINGTON 

tion of the Xegro out of Africa was providen- 
tial; that in spite of the sufferings of slavery, 
which were but for a time, God gave him there 
in as a permanent heritage, the gospel of 
Jesus Christ, the Saviour of all men. Our 
fathers and mothers believed, and rejoiced 
in the belief, that the emancipation of the 
Negro w^as the direct result of the patient and 
persistent prayers of this people in bondage. 
And then, to carry further his purposes of 
good, God added the gift of Booker T. Wash- 
ington. 

For how else can you account for the 
nurture of his gentle mother? How else can 
you account for his progress from that lowly 
cabin in Virginia to that home of culture and 
refinement under the hand of Viola Ruffner? 
How else account for his making his way to 
Hampton? for his coming to Alabama? his 
winning his way into the hearts of the Ameri- 
can people, and the confidence and good will 
of all men? That career of Booker T. Wash- 
ington was as providential as the guidance 
that led Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees 
into the land of Canaan: that guidance was 

[9] 



B 



3. 



REMEMBER BOOKER T. WASHINGTON 

just as providential as that which rescued 
Joseph from the pit of Dothan, and pre- 
served him in Egypt to save his people and a 
nation from famine: just as providential as 
the guidance that hid Moses in the bulrushes 
and brought him into the courts of Pharaoh's 
daughter: as the guidance that preserved 
Daniel in the midst of his enemies and set him 
at last upon the throne of Babylon. 



€ 



I trust it shall never be to any one of you : 
but if ever you are tempted to believe or 
think that there is no way out of our present 
difficulty; that there is no high future of glory 
before the Negro, I bid you remember the 
story of Booker T. Washington. Get into 
your hearts this steadfast conviction, that the 
Negro race is just as much under the care and 
providence of Almighty God as were ever the 
children of Israel. And if for a time He may 
hold us back; if for a time He may keep us 
waitinsr; it is onlv that at the last He shall pre- 
sent us too without spot or wrinkle or any 
such thing, a peculiar people, holy and with- 
out blemish. 



[10] 






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